These are four very different books. Yet Macy and Johnstone’s attempt to teach “how to face the mess we’re in without going crazy,” Starhawk’s guide for collaborative groups, the Dalai Lama’s “ethics for a whole world,” and Joan Chittister’s attempt to show the variety of paths to happiness all have this in common: they are filled with wisdom that would, if studied together, empower many and give wise guidance on living fulfilling lives in a dysfunctional and deformed world. Pop psychology manuals often simply repeat the latest slogans of New Age spirituality. None of these books falls into that trap—each represents the mature thinking of a spiritually sophisticated consciousness.

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